Letters

May 1, 2013

By Staff

Thank you for supporting the first North Bend Blues Walk

The first-ever North Bend Blues Walk was a great success thanks to everyone involved. More than 1,200 people came out April 20, filling 13 venues downtown. Following in the same fashion as the successful Jazz Walk in September, music could be found all up and down North Bend Way from 6 p.m. to midnight, and patrons wandered from venue to venue enjoying the experience of it all.

We had a great group of new venues added to the list with music in some unconventional places. There was live music in a retail storefront like Birches Habitat and a car dealership showroom like Chaplin’s Chevrolet. Thanks to all our host venues.

The event was sponsored and produced by the nonprofit Boxley’s Music Fund, which is organized and run by members who want to support live music programs and education in the Snoqualmie Valley. We want to recognize the Blues Walk Committee chairwoman for her exceptional role in organizing the event, Audrey Paisley. Audrey also had a great team helping, including Paul Green, Karen Granger, Pat Cutchins, Courtney Cutchins, Bob Baumann, Linda Grez and another 40 or so volunteers.

We also want to thank our sponsors without whom this would not have been possible.

What’s next? It’s time to start planning for the second annual North Bend Jazz Walk, Sept. 20. Mark your calendars! You don’t want to miss this one. Thanks again for all your support.

Danny Kolke

boxleymusicfund.com

Address gun background checks

There is more than a little to criticize in Dave Olson’s April 18 critique of Joe Crecca’s April 11 letter, subject NCIS background checks.

I can’t agree wholly with Joe’s claim that “only honest, law-abiding citizens” are buying guns subject to a check. Recent data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse revealed a couple of interesting things. One — that the district within which Chicago resides ranks last in terms of prosecutions of federal weapons crimes per capita. And, two — that “nationally federal gun crime prosecutions hit a decade low in 2011 under President Obama, down 40 percent from their peak under President George W. Bush in 2004.”

And, National Criminal Justice Reference Service, found that in 2010, “of 6 million Americans who applied to buy a gun, less than 2 percent — or 76,000 — were denied. Of those, the ATF referred 4,732 cases for prosecution. Of them, just 44 were prosecuted, and only 13 were punished for lying or buying a gun illegally.”

So, it might be said that there are some dumb criminals out there trying to illegally purchase firearms legally. And, the current background check system is barely enforced.

Olson writes of “law-abiding citizens of record.” I was granted a license to carry a concealed weapon precisely because I had no “record.”